The Bachscore: Tally of Trail Blazers paid not to play

Bruce Ely/The OregonianRich Cho, recently fired as Trail Blazers GM, will remain on the payroll for two years.

Last week the Trail Blazers fired general manager Rich Cho, who will collect the rest of his $1 million for this year and for each of the two remaining years on his contract. The Blazers still are paying off the contract of Kevin Pritchard, making them two-deep in general managers on the severance-pay roster.

In addition to calling to mind the stories of farmers paid not to grow crops, that news made me wonder: Just what is the Blazers' single-season record for paying people not to work for them?

For sheer dollar value, it's difficult to beat the bar set by Shawn Kemp, the Reign Man who had begun to rust before he arrived in Portland in summer 2000. After two troubled seasons that included drug rehabilitation, Kemp agreed to a buyout of about $20 million -- a whopping number, but less than half of his remaining contract. (He wanted the chance to play again elsewhere; the Blazers were stacked with forwards.) The payments, however, were spread over a decade.

Former Blazers Derek Anderson and Darius Miles also got multimillion-dollar parting packages. Anderson's, for $18.8 million spread over several years, came after the Blazers released him in 2005 following a string of outside-shooting and health issues.

Miles, of course, was owed $18 million for the two years left on his contract when the Blazers attempted to declare him medically retired so that insurance would cover 80 percent of his salary. Miles later played in 34 games for Memphis, forcing his former team to pay up.

Not all severance packages become public, so it's difficult to say definitively what is the all-time high dollar amount or number of people paid by team owner Paul Allen while no longer in his employ.

But the current season (whose fiscal year runs through June 30) could be it.

Then there's forward Ryan Gomes, whom the Blazers cut nearly a year ago in a salary-saving, cap-ducking measure. He's owed $1 million this season.

The injuries were bad luck. What about the Blazers' self-inflicted financial wounds?

The fired Pritchard is on the payroll for an estimated $1 million-$1.5 million through June.

Cho will receive the balance of his $1 million salary.

Also still on the payroll is Tom Penn, Pritchard's former right-hand man, trained lawyer and salary-cap expert. Penn was fired in March 2010 for what team president Larry Miller called at the time "philosophical differences."

The grand total: six people and roughly $12 million for no-show jobs, even accounting for a deduction for Cho earning his pay for most of the season.